Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. We're about to look at a well-known
story from Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel. Many people
know this story. But here's the message that I
pray we'll see in it. This is what I hope we will all
cry out to our God. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me to myself. Now back in chapter 10, Genesis
10, verse one says, these are the generations of the sons of
Noah. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And unto them were sons born
after the flood. And then it gives the sons of
Japheth. Verse 5 says, By these were the
isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after
his tongue, after their families and their nations. And then it
lists the sons of Ham. And verse 20 says, These are
the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues,
in their countries, and in their nations. And then it lists the
sons of Shem. And verse 31 says, These are
the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues,
in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the
sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations, And by these
were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. So Noah's
sons, Japheth, Ham, and Shem, they walked out of the ark with
Noah. And by those three men, the earth was repopulated. Japheth
was born first, but we usually say his name last. And I think
about the fact that our Lord said, the first shall be last
and the last shall be first. Why? It's because through Shem,
the Hebrews came and ultimately our Lord. So chapter 11 verse
1 says, the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. For the first 1700 years of man,
there was only one language in the earth. And it will be that
way again. In God's new earth, heavenly
Jerusalem, there's only gonna be one language. And it's gonna
be whatever language Christ speaks. Whatever language glorifies Him
the most. And I thought about this. We
live in an interesting world, don't we? An interesting world
with very interesting cultural differences. And some people have learned
much about other cultures. Some people have learned more
than one language. But the fact that there is more
than one language to learn, that means something. That ought to
tell us something. What that says is we are all
sinners. Sin is the only reason you can
go south and cross a border and hear a totally different language
from the one we speak. It's because of sin. Right here
in this story, this is what tells us this. So every time we hear
a different language, we ought to be reminded of the fact that
we're all just a bunch of sinners. All of us. That's all we are. In all of creation, we can see
God's glory. We can also see man's sin. In
all of creation. So verse one says, the whole
earth was of one language and of one speech, And it came to
pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there." From the east actually
translates to the east. They journeyed to the east into
the plain of the land of Shinar. That's in Iraq. It's located in Iraq. And it's amazing how much rebellion
against God is still pouring out of that place. A lot of rebellion
took place right here in the building of this tower. And it's
still pouring out of that place. The people of the land of Shinar
are rebellious against God. But here's the truth of the matter.
So are we. They represent every soul born
into this planet. We're not picking on them. Every
single soul is born into this world enmity against God, rebellious
toward God. A person might hear that and
think, that can't be true, there's no way that's true. Oh, but it
is. All God has to do is leave you
to yourself and leave me to myself. and our rebellion will consume
us. It will consume us. The only
difference in a terrorist and an American suburban family man
is the restraining hand of God Almighty. That's the only difference. But for the grace of God, there
go I. I am what I am by the grace of
God. That's the only thing that causes
me to be different, the restraining hand of God. Well, verse 3, the
people here in this land of Shinar, they said one to another, go
to, let us make brick and burn them throughly. And they had
brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. Let's go to
work. That's what they said. Let's
do something. Let's build us a foundation. Now they did not want Christ
the rock. They wanted to build their own
foundation by the works of their own hands. Spiritually speaking, that's
every soul born into this planet. Spiritually speaking. And but for the grace of God
stepping in and revealing the truth of salvation. It's not
by man's works. Not at all. Man does not build
his own tower to God. Man does not make his own foundation. But for God stepping in and revealing
the truth Every soul on this planet wants to get to God by
the works of his own hands or her own hands. Now over in 1
Corinthians 3, our Lord wrote through the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians
3, verse 11, for other foundation can no man laid than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ. You can't build another foundation.
They said, let's make us some bricks and let's build us a foundation.
You cannot lay another foundation, not other than Christ. He is
the only foundation. He goes on to say, now if any
man build up on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed
by fire And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. The fire of God is going to try
every man's work. Man wants to go to work and build
himself a righteous tower to God. Man wants to get himself
to God. And that says God's gonna try
man's work. And I can tell you this, it won't
hold up. There's nothing a man can do that will hold up. My prayer this morning, my strong
desire is that God will take his word and make it very clear
in the minds and in the hearts of all of us. My prayer is that
no one will leave this program wondering what I was talking
about. Love it or hate it, but don't wonder what I was talking
about. None of us have time for that. None of us have time for
that. Our Lord came preaching, the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does that mean? That means
we could go meet God today. That's what it means. Today could
be the day that we go stand before God. Are we gonna stand on our
own foundation? Or are we gonna stand on Christ
the rock? If you and I believe that being
a good person and striving to do what this world knows to be
right, if we believe that being more kind and being more forgiving
and being more loving, if we believe any of those things will
get us to heaven, they won't. That's a tower that will not
stand. None of those bricks will last. As a matter of fact, the person
who believes that will be more damned than the person who doesn't
believe anything at all. Our Lord said in Matthew 23 verse
15, He said, that person will be twofold the child of hell. Strong language, isn't it? Well,
it's our Lord who said it. So my prayer is that God will
make His word so clear in someone's ear. that they say, I've never
heard anything like this. I'm gonna get into the word and
prove you wrong. Please do, please do. Please
get into God's word and see whether these things are so. See what God said about our works.
See what God said about our goodness. He said there's none that doeth
good, no not one, didn't he? He said there's none good but
God. See what he says about our trying
to do right, our rightness, our righteousness. He said all our righteousness
are as filthy rags, all of them. Let me tell you what Galatians
3 says. It says whoever tries to get into heaven by obeying
God's law is going to be cursed. They're under the curse. That's a tower that's not going
to last. That's a tower you can't stand on. Being a better person
is not the way of eternal life. There is one way. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Don't let me stand over here to the side making my own bricks. Don't let me stand over here
to the side stirring my own bucket of slime. There's one way. Please don't leave me to my works.
Please don't leave me to my self-righteousness. Lord, please don't leave me to
my filthy rags. There's one way. It's in the
work of Jesus Christ alone, that's it. It's in the tower of everything
He did. It's in the tower of everything
He paid. It's in the bricks of all the
wrong that He made right. God judged Him for the sin of
His people. God's fiery wrath tried His work. and found it to be sufficient.
He fulfilled God's law. He became cursed for us. And
he covered our rebellion. He did that in his own blood.
There's one way. There is one way. If God leaves
a sinner to himself, he will never see this. He'll never believe
this to be true. All of His worship, all of His
religion, it will all be self. Now go with me back to our text
in Genesis 11 and notice who they are worshiping. Verse three,
they said one to another, go to, let us make brick and burn
them throughly. And they had brick for stone
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, let us,
build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven,
and let us, make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth." Us. Let us make us a name. They're
not concerned about God's name, are they? They're not concerned
about His holiness and His righteousness and His work. It's all about
us. That's how you can tell when
a man is lying to you. The question is always, who is
getting the glory? That's how you can tell true
worship from false worship. A true foundation from a false
foundation. Who is getting the glory? Is
it God or is it us? Is all the focus and all the
acknowledgement for salvation on God or is it on us? I was invited a few years back,
six or eight years ago, I was invited by somebody to an all
song worship service. No preaching, it was going to
be all singing, but they called it a worship service. And I didn't
go. And this person tried to entice
me by saying it's all new and it's all fresh. They thought
this would be enticing to me. It was not. But what they said
was, it's all new and it's contemporary and it's not the same old hymns.
It's things like, here we come to worship, not how great thou
art. Ah, you won't hear them singing
that. I thought, oh man, that's the heart of religion. It's all about us, it's all about
self. Here we come to worship, not
how great thou art. I want you to see something with
me in Isaiah 53. This is a chapter that we know
so well, but let's really take note of something here in Isaiah
53. I'm going to read these 12 verses, and I want us all to
notice how many times it says he, him, or his. Every time we see an hour or
a we, it's immediately followed by a he, a him, or a his. Isaiah 53 verse 1 says, Who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. hath no form
nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that
we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, We've turned every one to his own way, And
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. And who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of My people
was He stricken. And He made His grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in His death. Because He had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, And he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors." Now, what part of that glorifies us?
What part of that is to make a name for us? Do we see the
difference? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Cause me to see this is all about him. This is all about Christ. Give me him. Give me his work. Lord, give me his bricks. Give
me his foundation. The truth is all about Christ.
The gospel is all about Christ. It's not about us. Not unto us. Oh Lord, not unto us. It's not about what we've done.
It's not about what we're going to do. It's about Christ. It's
all about Christ. Now here's the good news. This
is wonderful news. Back in Genesis chapter 11, back
over in our text, verse 5 says, and the Lord came down. Now we've heard all this horrible
truth about what man was doing. Now let's hear what God did.
Verse 5 says, and the Lord came down. If this was in the Psalms,
David would have put a Selah right there. Let's just dwell
on that for a minute. These people who represent you
and me, they were lost in their ignorance. They were just continuing
on in their sin. thriving in their rebellion,
pressing their way to the gates of hell. That's what they were
doing. And the Lord came down. The same thing happened to Saul
of Tarsus. He was wreaking havoc on the church. He was hailing
men and women, breathing out threatenings and slaughter. And
the Lord came down. Stopped him in his tracks, didn't
he? He stopped them in their tracks right here at the Tower
of Babel. And do you know what He did for
you and me? Stopped us in our tracks. What mercy! As poor, wretched sinners, no
God and no hope, it seemed there was no one to help. But God in
His mercy, salvation supplied, emptied heaven and came down
Himself. And that song goes on to say,
a ransom was found. Love paid the price, a ransom
was found. Verse 5 says, The Lord came down
to see the city and the tower which the children of men built,
and the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have
all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing
will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Nothing that they've imagined
to do. They're just going to go deeper and deeper into their
imaginations and they'll succeed in them. You know what our Lord
said in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, the Lord looked down from
heaven. He saw the wickedness of man that it was great in the
earth. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. That's man's imagination. That's
what he'll continue in evil. He's not going to be restrained
from all the evil he can imagine. So verse 7, God said, Go to. Let us go down. That's our precious
Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit. Let
us go down and there confound their language that they may
not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and
they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all
the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth." God confounded them, God scattered
them, God did it. What they didn't realize is,
God does not save from the top of the tower. Man's trying to
build himself a tower and stand on the top of it. But God does
not save from the top of the tower. He saves from the bottom
of the pit. The way up is not up. It's down. So God stepped in in mercy and
God scattered him. And do you know what our God
said to Christ over in Psalm chapter 2? In Psalm chapter 2,
he said, you ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. God the Father said that same
heathen that we scattered, I'm gonna bring some of them back
and I'm gonna give them to Christ for an inheritance. I'm going
to build a city which hath foundations." And in Jeremiah 31 verse 10,
our Lord said, Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and
declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered
Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. Is that not the most glorious
news you've ever heard? That's good news for wicked sinners. That's called the gospel. It's
called the gospel. All we did was evil and wrong,
but God in mercy came down and stopped us, scattered us, showed
us our sin, and then gathered the ones He chose back to be
with Christ. Now I'm going to close with Revelation
14. Over in Revelation 14, verse 1, it says, And I looked, and
lo, a lamb stood on the mount Zion. A lamb stood on top of
a mountain. With him, and hundred, forty,
and four thousand, having his father's name written in their
foreheads. Verse 6 says, And I saw another angel fly in the
midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people." Everyone who was scattered abroad right there
at the Tower of Babel. The gospel is about to go forth.
Saying with a loud voice, fear God. and give glory to Him, for
the hour of His judgment is come, and worship Him that made heaven
and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.' And there
followed another angel saying this, Babylon is fallen." It's
fallen. Good news. Babylon is fallen. Thank God He didn't leave us
to ourselves. He didn't leave us in our sin.
Before He destroyed the city, He pulled us out. He scattered
us out. And then He set us in Zion, the
beautiful city of God, to forever praise the work of that Lamb
that's standing on top of that mountain. We have a high tower. Here's the good news of the gospel.
We have a high tower. All our works are going to be
burned up, but we have a high tower. One that reaches from
earth all the way up into the Holy of Holies. His name is Jesus
Christ. Until next Sunday morning, may
the Lord God bless His word to our hearts. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at kingsportsovereigngracechurch.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m. and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next Sunday morning
at 8.30 for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.